Emily wished to trip along the turf, so green and bright with dew, and
to taste the full delight of that liberty, which the izard seemed to
enjoy as he bounded along the brow of the cliffs; while Valancourt often
stopped to speak with the travellers, and with social feeling to point
out to them the peculiar objects of his admiration. St. Aubert was
pleased with him: 'Here is the real ingenuousness and ardour of youth,'
said he to himself; 'this young man has never been at Paris.'
He was sorry when they came to the spot where the roads parted, and his
heart took a more affectionate leave of him than is usual after so short
an acquaintance. Valancourt talked long by the side of the carriage;
seemed more than once to be going, but still lingered, and appeared to
search anxiously for topics of conversation to account for his delay. At
length he took leave. As he went, St. Aubert observed him look with an
earnest and pensive eye at Emily, who bowed to him with a countenance
full of timid sweetness, while the carriage drove on. St. Aubert, for
whatever reason, soon after looked from the window, and saw Valancourt
standing upon the bank of the road, resting on his pike with folded
arms, and following the carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and
Valancourt, seeming to awake from his reverie, returned the salute, and
started away.
The aspect of the country now began to change, and the travellers soon
found themselves among mountains covered from their base nearly to their
summits with forests of gloomy pine, except where a rock of granite shot
up from the vale, and lost its snowy top in the clouds. The rivulet,
which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and,
flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the
blackness of the impending shades. Sometimes a cliff was seen lifting
its bold head above the woods and the vapours, that floated mid-way down
the mountains; and sometimes a face of perpendicular marble rose from
the water's edge, over which the larch threw his gigantic arms, here
scathed with lightning, and there floating in luxuriant foliage.
They continued to travel over a rough and unfrequented road, seeing now
and then at a distance the solitary shepherd, with his dog, stalking
along the valley, and hearing only the dashing of torrents, which the
woods concealed from the eye, the long sullen murmur of the breeze,
as it swept over the pines, or the notes of the eagle and the vulture,
which were seen towering round the beetling cliff.